Following yesterday’s agreement between Austrian Airlines with representatives of the “flight personnel”, an agreement was reached today with the technical and commercial staff. This includes the stations as well as technical and administrative employees, comprising close to 3,000 of the 7,000 people working for Austria’s red-white-red national carrier.

Austrian Airlines anticipates a very slow recovery after the crisis. In order to retain as many employees as possible during a period of low demand, an agreement was reached with the works council on a long-term application of the short-time work model until 2022. There will be no customary annual salary increments or adjustments for inflation during this period.

After short-time work, salary will be waived for all employees. Today the company and employee representatives agreed on a temporary reduction of current salaries for the ground staff in the period March 20, 2022 until December 31, 2023. The pay cuts are socially staggered and equal between two and fifteen percent. Furthermore, the social compensation plan which has been in effect for many years will be extended until December 31, 2025. The package of measures will be subsequently voted upon. In turn, the flight and cabin crew will forego between 5.9 percent and 12.7 percent of their salaries in the years 2022 to 2024 as well as pension fund contributions. This will be complemented by various savings and flexibilization measures in the ramp-up phase.

On balance, the 7,000 employees will bear the brunt of some EUR 80 million in annual savings, enabling personnel costs to be reduced by 20 percent. Accordingly, their cumulative contribution will equal EUR 300 million by the year 2024.

“The agreement reached on staff-related cost measures enables us to retain as many employees as possible during the crisis. Moreover, we have taken an important step towards restarting flight operations. In this way, the employees are making a huge contribution towards helping Austrian Airlines manage the crisis”, states Austrian Airlines COO Jens Ritter.